Elbert Hubbard
- He who does not understand your silence will probably not understand your words.
- A friend is someone who knows all about you and still loves you.
- God will not look you over for medals, degrees or diplomas but for scars.
- Never explain―your friends do not need it and your enemies will not believe you anyway.
- The greatest mistake you can make in life is to be continually fearing you will make one.
- There is no failure except in no longer trying.
- It does not take much strength to do things, but it requires a great deal of strength to decide what to do.
- The object of teaching a child is to enable him to get along without a teacher.
- The love we give away is the only love we keep.
- To avoid criticism, do nothing, say nothing, be nothing.
- Happiness is a habit—cultivate it.
- I would rather be able to appreciate things I cannot have than to have things I am not able to appreciate.
- The final proof of greatness lies in being able to endure criticism without resentment.
- Folks who never do any more than they get paid for, never get paid for any more than they do
- One machine can do the work of fifty ordinary men. No machine can do the work of one extraordinary man.
- If put to the pinch, an ounce of loyalty is worth a pound of cleverness.
- It is easy to get everything you want, provided you first learn to do without the things you cannot get.
- The supernatural is the natural not yet understood.
- A retentive memory may be a good thing, but the ability to forget is the true token of greatness.
- We awaken in others the same attitude of mind we hold toward them.
- A conservative is a man who is too cowardly to fight and too fat to run.
- It's a fine thing to have ability, but the ability to discover ability in others is the true test.
- We will not be dictated to by men with less intelligence, energy, initiative and ambition than we ourselves possess.
- Responsibility is the price of freedom.
- Men are only as great as they are kind.
- We work to become, not to acquire.
- Little minds are interested in the extraordinary; great minds in the commonplace.
- When you grow suspicious of a person and begin a system of espionage upon him, your punishment will be that you will find your suspicions true.
- When life gives you lemons, make lemonade.
- There is more sophistication and less sense in New York than anywhere else on the globe.
- The stronger a man is, the more gentle he can afford to be
- The teacher is the one who gets the most out of the lessons, and the true teacher is the learner.
- The great man is not so great as folks think, and the dull man is not quite so stupid as he seems. The difference in our estimates of men lies in the fact that one individual is able to get his goods into the show-window, and the other is not aware that he has any show-window or any goods.
- Whenever you go out-of-doors, draw the chin in, carry the crown of the head high, and fill the lungs to the utmost; drink in the sunshine; greet your friends with a smile, and put soul into every handclasp. Do not fear being misunderstood and do not waste a minute thinking about your enemies. Try to fix firmly in your mind what you would like to do; and then, without veering off direction, you will move straight to the goal. Keep your mind on the great and splendid things you would like to do, and then, as the days go gliding away, you will find yourself unconsciously seizing upon the opportunities that are requiered for the fulfillment of your desire, just as the coral insect takes from the running tide the element it needs. Picture in your mind the able, earnest, useful person you desire to be, and the thought you hold is hourly transforming you into that particular individual... Thought is supreme. Preserve a right mental attitude - the attitude of courage, frankness, and good cheer. To think rightly is to create. All things come through desire and every sincere prayer is answered. We become like that on which our hearts are fixed. Carry your chin in and the crown of your head high. We are good in the chrysalis.
- Every saint has a bee in his halo.
- Life is unrest, and its passage at best a zigzag course, that only straightens to a direct line when viewed across the years.
- Young women with ambitions should be very crafty and cautious, lest mayhap they be caught in the soft, silken mesh of a happy marriage, and go down to oblivion, dead to the world.
- A PRAYER The supreme prayer of my heart is not to be learned, rich, famous, powerful, or “good,” but simply to be radiant. I desire to radiate health, cheerfulness, calm courage and good will. I wish to live without hate, whim, jealousy, envy, fear. I wish to be simple, honest, frank, natural, clean in mind and clean in body, unaffected—ready to say “I do not know,” if it be so, and to meet all men on an absolute equality—to face any obstacle and meet every difficulty unabashed and unafraid. I wish others to live their lives, too—up to their highest, fullest and best. To that end I pray that I may never meddle, interfere, dictate, give advice that is not wanted, or assist when my services are not needed. If I can help people, I’ll do it by giving them a chance to help themselves; and if I can uplift or inspire, let it be by example, inference, and suggestion, rather than by injunction and dictation.